Best Corolla year

[Battlecat1991]

Hi there!
Im tired of my Nissan Almera 1.8 nothing but problems with that car, and its burning a lot of oil.
Im looking to buy a used Toyota Corolla 1.6 with manual transmission, but which model year is the best 02, 03, 04, 05?
And what kind of problems did you guys have with your Corollas?

Help is much appreciated!

All the best

Patrick

 

[FinalGear]

North America

2005-2006 Corolla XRS (feature a 2zz motor) - Sleeper Sport model.. most owners whom owns this model don't even know it
2002-2008 Corolla CE, LE, and S (feature 1zz motor w/ TRD Supercharger) is the UNICORN!
2002-2008 Corolla S is the-end sport/trim level will have the lip kit and back interior.

LOL.. just make sure your Corolla has a moon roof/sun roof.. this was concern a added expensive to this gen model

If you want the hatchback version.. it would the 1st gen Toyota Matrix

FYI: this gen corolla was built on late 90s Car Technology

 

[captmatt]

I have an '05 LE high mileage car, I'm talking almost 300.000 mi. bought it new. Very few problems other than expected wear and tear. Only problem is paint fade, not uncommon in S FL, especially with those of us too lazy to use a good paste wax!

 

[Richard Tomlinsen]

Mine is an '04 CE manual transmission with about 280,000 miles on it. Overall very reliable vehicle. Most of the maintenance issues seem to be non-engine related, such as the hood/trunk not latching and needing to replace the latch, gas cap leaking, had to replace both front bearings and one of the rear bearings about 75k miles ago or so.

One thing I appreciate is that it is a very easy car to work on. Mounting bolts are in general pretty easy to get at, like it was designed with future maintenance in mind. User-serviceable parts are accessible and not complicated to replace, such as air/oil filters, etc. If you want to get a sense of the sorts of maintenance and repairs, I keep a log of everything I do on it at practicalmechanic.com